This document discusses taxonomy development for a knowledge management site. It explains that a taxonomy is a controlled vocabulary organized hierarchically. Taxonomies are used for navigation, indexing, search, and more. The document provides guidance on getting started with taxonomy development including identifying a sponsor, researching needs, and determining scope. It also discusses options to build a taxonomy through methods like card sorting or to license an existing taxonomy. The appendix lists taxonomy resources like blogs, books, and professional groups.

1. TAXONOMY FOR A KM
SITE - WHY AND HOW?
Janice Keeler
Manager, Knowledge Management
NERA Economic Consulting
Chair-Elect, SLA Taxonomy Division
KM Chicago
October 9, 2012

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About Our Firm
NERA Economic Consulting is a global firm of experts
dedicated to applying economic, finance, and quantitative
principles to complex business and legal challenges
• For half a century, NERA's economists have been creating
strategies, studies, reports, expert testimony, and policy
recommendations for government authorities and the world's
leading law firms and corporations
• We bring academic rigor, objectivity, and real world industry experience
to bear on issues arising from competition, regulation, public policy,
strategy, finance, and litigation
• Clients value our ability to apply and communicate state-of-the-art
approaches clearly and convincingly, our commitment to deliver
unbiased findings, and our reputation for quality and independence
• Our clients rely on the integrity and skills of our unparalleled team of
economists and other experts backed by the resources and reliability of
one of the world's largest economic consultancies

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What about Google/Free Text Search?
• Cardiac assist devices • Heart valves
• Catheter • Insulin pumps
• Defibrillator • Hypodermic products
• Medical devices • Pacemakers
• Medical equipment • Stent
• Medical products
• Medical supplies
• Hospital supplies

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What is Taxonomy?
• Taxonomy: A collection of controlled vocabulary terms organized into a
hierarchical structure. [1]
• Taxonomy terms are:
• Controlled – coherently structured with no random additions
• Hierarchical – with defined broader and narrower terms.
• Animals
• Mammals
• Cats
• Dogs
• Humans
• Typically linked to all identified synonyms to facilitate searching
[1] Guidelines for the Construction, Format and Management of
Monolingual Controlled Vocabularies, ANSI/NISO Z39.19-2005, p. 9.

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Controlled Vocabularies
Guidelines for the Construction, Format and Management of Monolingual Controlled
Vocabularies, ANSI/NISO Z39.19-2005, p. 17.
Ontologies are even more complex; with concepts related by
explicitly named types of relationships. See Google
Knowledge Graph

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Semantic relationships
• Equivalency
• Hierarchy – generic, instance, whole-part
• Associative:
• Cause/effect
• Process/agent
• Process/counteragent
• Action/product
• Action/property
• Action/target
• Concept or object/property
• Concept or object/origins
• Concept or object/measurement unit or mechanism
• Raw material/product
• Discipline or field/object or practitioner
Guidelines for the Construction, Format and Management of Monolingual Controlled
Vocabularies, ANSI/NISO Z39.19-2005, p. 53-56.

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Where are Taxonomies Used?
• Navigation
• Indexing
• Search
• Search refinements and suggestions
• Dynamic population of web pages or RSS feeds

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Getting Started - Sponsor
• Identify an executive sponsor
• Determine taxonomy scope and purpose
• Keep sponsor updated, revisit scope and purpose based
on research
• Get budget

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Discuss Business Requirements
• What is the goal of the taxonomy?
• Common language for improved search
• Text analysis/discovery
• Auto-populate website content pages or RSS feeds
• What is the scope of the taxonomy?
• How many platforms will use the taxonomy?
• Are you going to go back and reclassify old documents?
• Do you need to map any existing or specialized
taxonomies to the new taxonomy?

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Getting Started - Research
• Study organization’s information needs
• Interview stakeholders
• Do a content audit
• Use text mining for terms if tools are available

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Text Mining

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Overall Strategic Plan
• Purpose, scope and benefits
• Change management
• Communications
• Governance

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Taxonomy Project Plan
• Identify Steering Committee and participants for
taxonomy development – with all stakeholders
represented
• Taxonomy development or acquisition
• Taxonomy tool identification/selection/integration
• Taxonomy maintenance

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Taxonomies – Build or Buy
• License (and potentially customize) existing taxonomies:
• Taxonomy Warehouse - http://www.taxonomywarehouse.com
• TaxoBank - http://www.taxobank.org
• Build a taxonomy
• Card Sorting
• Focus Groups
• Build draft and get reactions
• Revise and consult

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Card Sorting Example
• Outdoor dining sets
• Propane grills
• Fire pits
• Snow blowers
• Lawn mowers
• Trimmers and edgers
• Hot tubs
• Hedge shears
• Patio benches

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Actual Categorization
As of Oct. 9, 2012 on company web sites: http://www.homedepot.com/ and http://www.lowes.com/

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Taxonomy Tools – What to Ask About
• Taxonomy features of • Auto-categorization
content management • Machine-Aided vs.
system vs. standalone automated only
tool • Rule-based vs. algorithms
• Term management • Mapping of multiple
options taxonomies
• Polyhierarchy • Multilingual capabilities
• Synonyms and Related • Standards compliance
Terms • Import/Export options
• Ability to create custom • Integration/Interoperability
relationships • Users/security

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Appendix: Resource Lists
• Blogs
• Books
• Groups

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Blogs
• http://www.earley.com/blog (Seth Earley and staff)
• http://www.greenchameleon.com (Patrick Lambe and
Straits Knowledge Staff)
• http://taxodiary.com (Margie Hlava, Jay Ven Eman and
Access Innovations staff)
• http://www.vocabcontrol.com (Fran Alexander)

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Books
• The Accidental Taxonomist. Heather Hedden. Information
Today, Inc., 2010.
• Building Enterprise Taxonomies. Darin L. Stewart. Mokita
Press, 2008.
• Organising Knowledge: Taxonomies, Knowledge and
Organisational Effectiveness. Patrick Lambe. London:
Chandos Publishing, 2007.
• Thesaurus Construction and Use: A Practical Manual.
Jean Aitchison, Alan Gilchrist, David Bawden. 4th ed.
London: Europa Publications, 2000.
• Card Sorting: Designing Usable Categories. Donna
Spencer. Brooklyn, NY: Rosenfeld Media, 2009.

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Groups
• SLA Taxonomy Division: http://taxonomy.sla.org
• Taxonomy Community of Practice:
http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/TaxoCoP/